


Knotting His Tie

by bjfic_archivist



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-29
Updated: 2005-05-29
Packaged: 2018-12-26 19:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12065073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjfic_archivist/pseuds/bjfic_archivist
Summary: Brian and Justin celebrate an anniversary.





	Knotting His Tie

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

Jennifer entered the diner, a slight smile on her face as she made her way toward the counter and Debbie's colorful form. She had attempted to give up coffee, but found that she needed her liquid sustenance to make it through her long, sometimes boring, days of home sales.

"Jennifer! Where have you been?" the red-haired woman exclaimed, immediately reaching for a pot of coffee, then flipping over a cup already resting on the counter as the slightly younger woman slid onto a stool.

"Oh, I went to visit Justin." She added a little cream and sugar to her coffee and sipped it gingerly. Yes, the coffee at the diner was awful, but usually the company made up for the blandness.

* * *

7 Days Earlier

Jennifer stepped out of the taxi onto the busy city streets. She'd never been to Europe before, and she certainly had never expected her first sojourn there to be a trip to Denmark, but the city was beautiful, the trip was free, and she was thrilled to be there. She waited while the bellhop collected her luggage from the trunk of the taxi, then carefully paid the driver before following the bellhop into the hotel.

As she stepped into the lobby her eyes immediately found those of her son. She was often stuck by his beauty. His beauty was not typical of men . . . he wasn't ruggedly handsome, he wasn't overly muscular . . . instead his blond hair and pale skin glowed almost ethereally and his strength mainly consisted of inner strength which, in Jennifer's opinion, was the most valuable.

"I'm so glad you could come," he said quietly, wrapping his arms around her slender form and briefly hugging her. 

"So where's Brian?"

"Still upstairs. He couldn't totally get away from work, so he's on a conference call with Cynthia and Brown Athletics. I came down here to get out of his way and wait for you. I figured I'd keep you company while you get checked in, then we can find somewhere to have lunch."

"Will Brian be done with his call by then?" she asked, as Justin steered her toward the front desk so she could collect her room key.

"Possibly. I'll call him from the restaurant, and if he is he'll get a cab and meet us there."

 

* * *

Justin sat on the corner of the bed in his mother's hotel room and watched her as she unpacked one dress after another, nearly all containing some variation of a floral print. Jennifer turned and smiled at him, pausing in her task.

"What?" Justin asked quietly, his brow furrowing as he studied his mother.

"Nothing. It's just . . . strange." Strange that a year had gone by, an entire year in which her son had become totally independent of her, not needing her for love, affection, money, a roof over his head . . . an entire year that was stretching into a lifetime.

"Yeah, life takes some strange twists. But if it didn't then we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be the people we are." He smiled at her for a moment. "And I kind of like who we've all become."

* * *

"So when is Justin coming home?"

Jennifer focused on Debbie once again, taking in the way the woman stood behind the counter, her arms crossed over her large chest, her large gaudy earrings still swinging with her earlier movement even though she stood stock-still.

"Oh, um . . . I'm not sure. Any day, I would guess. He just said he needed a couple of weeks to unwind."

"Well, it's been two weeks already." She pointed a red-tipped finger at Jennifer. "You tell that boy I want to see him."

"I'm sure he'll want to spend some time with Brian when he gets back," Jennifer replied with a small smile. She doubted she would see him for at least a week upon his return, if her trip to Amsterdam was any indication.

* * *

6 Days Earlier

Jennifer studied Justin as he looked critically at himself in the large freestanding mirror in the corner of her hotel room. He was dressed in a dark blue suit with a white shirt and royal blue tie. The knot of the tie was a bit crooked and after a few moments of fussing with it he turned to his mother, his eyes pleading for help.

"How do you manage this when I'm not around?" she asked teasingly, her hands finding their way to the knot at the base of his throat, correcting the awkwardness of the knot, as she had found herself doing for his father just a few short years ago.

"Brian does it." He offered her a half-watt smile. "He acts like it's such a chore."

"I can imagine." She smiled again, then wiggled the knot one more time before brushing imaginary lint from his shoulders. Gently cupping his chin between her thumb and index finger, she drew his gaze toward hers. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, Mom," he said quietly, his voice barely more than a whisper. "I am."

"All right, then." Jennifer leaned forward and, brushing away the soft locks of blond hair, pressed a kiss to his forehead.

* * *

"Jennifer? Are you okay? Your mind seems to be on something else completely."

"What? Oh. Sorry, Debbie." She offered the boisterous woman a soft smile. "Just thinking about my trip."

"Well, Sunshine better stop by as soon as he gets back to town. I want to hear all about California. I don't care if he tells me about touring the vineyards in Napa, I still want to hear about it."

"I didn't tour Napa."

Debbie's head whipped around as she focused on Justin standing just inside the diner door, Brian looking bored as he stood behind the younger man. "Justin!" Debbie hustled out from behind the counter and pulled Justin roughly to her in a suffocating bear hug. "We missed you so much. And making your poor mother wait two weeks longer before coming home . . ."

"Christ, Deb, he's not twelve, you know."

"And you couldn't go and visit him? What kind of boyfriend are you?" She crossed her arms over her enormous chest and glared at the taller man, then affectionately smacked him in the shoulder. "It'salways about business and fucking with you."

"Lay off, Deb." Justin focused his steady gaze on her, then linked his fingers through Brian's and led the older man toward the booth where Emmett, Ted, Ben, and Michael sat. "Hey, guys."

"Justin!" Emmett bounced up and down in his seat. "When did you get back?"

"Yesterday. We ended up staying in, sleeping off some of the jet lag."

"So I called Brett on Monday, just to ask about the progress of the movie, since I couldn't get hold of you for some reason . . . and he said that as far as he knew you'd left California two weeks earlier."

"Yeah, we went to Europe. Seemed a good time to do it, what with the movie off in editing and with the spring semester starting up next week," Justin replied as his mother lightly touched his shoulder. 

"The two of you are coming over for dinner sometime this week. Molly wants to see you both." The look she leveled at them brooked no argument.

"Sure, Mom. We'll bring the wine." Justin pressed a quick kiss to his mother's cheek.

"I'll let you know when we're available. I'm sure Cynthia's lined up meetings all week long," Brian replied with a tongue-in-cheek grin. He watched as the woman left the diner, then shook his head slightly and focused on his friends once again. "Move over, bitches, I don't want to stand here all day." He fixed his glare on Ted until the other man stood and moved over to the other side of the booth, sliding in beside Michael and Ben.

"I've always loved Europe. The art, the architecture . . . So where did you go?" Ben asked, setting down his cup of green tea.

"Denmark." Justin grinned, working his arms out of his coat and letting it lie on the bench seat behind his back.

"Denmark? You went to Denmark?" Ted spluttered, reaching for his napkin.

"You _do_ know what's in Denmark, don't you?" Emmett asked, his eyes growing wide as he regarded first Brian's look of contentment and then Justin's small smile.

"Yeah. Copenhagen." Brian reached over and snaked his left hand under Justin's pale blue sweater, the cool metal of his ring bringing slight goose bumps to the younger man's skin. Justin leaned back against Brian's hand, his smile growing wider as he looked down at his own left hand.

THE END

 

Note: I tried looking into the laws relating to gay marriage in Denmark, and could find only that partners originally from a foreign country who resided in Denmark for a specific period of time could get married and have it registered, as well as couples of which one member is a citizen of Denmark. Perhaps this has changed since the website I looked at was posted. But I couldn't find any info about whether or not a foreign couple not residing in Denmark could have a non-registered ceremony. So for the purpose of this story, I decided to let Brian and Justin get married there anyway.


End file.
